Author:

Vladimir Matias(Los Alamos National Laboratory)

We study biaxial crystalline texturing at early film growth in a
variety of
compounds during ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD). We have
found that
many different halite-structure compounds share the ion-beam
texturing
ability at nucleation and early film growth. This includes
numerous oxides
and nitrides. Fluorite-structure compounds also exhibit the
possibility of
fast IBAD texturing. For these materials IBAD texturing can be
achieved
within the first few nanometers of deposited material. We examine
the
detailed texture evolution for MgO. To perform these experiments we
developed a unique experimental methodology based on linear
combinatorial
research. Three different texture development regions can be
identified in
MgO texture evolution. The first stage where biaxial texture
first appears
is during grain nucleation. There is evidence of a phase
transition in this
region. With additional IBAD texture continues to improve by
grain alignment
up to a certain point. Further improvement in crystalline
alignment can be
achieved by a third stage of epitaxial overgrowth. We find that
the IBAD
texture development is very sensitive to the nucleation surface
conditions,
both chemical species and surface morphology. An in-plane texture
of less
than 2\r{ } and an out-of-plane texture of less than 1\r{ } are
attainable
in an artificially textured MgO layer on an amorphous substrate
This work is
supported by the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery {\&} Energy
Reliability.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2009.MAR.W12.13